ry did not spend
more time upon old Wardelow than was required by the necessities of
business.

[Illustration: THE OLD MAN NEVER LEFT HIS HOUSE WITHOUT AFFIXING TO HIS
DOOR A PLACARD TELLING WHERE HE HAD GONE AND WHEN HE WOULD RETURN.]

There were a few exceptions to this rule. Old Mrs. Perry, who passed for
a saint, and whose life did not belie her reputation, used to drive her
old pony up to New Boston about once a month, carrying some home-made
delicacy with her, and chatting sympathetically for an hour or two.

Among the Mount Pisgah merchants there was one--who had never had a
child of his own--who always pressed the old man's hand warmly, and
admitted the possibility of whatever new hope Wardelow might express.

The pastors of the several churches at Mount Pisgah, however much they
disagreed on doctrinal points, were in perfect accord as to the beauty
of a character which was so completely under the control of a noble
principle that had no promise of money in it; most of them, therefore,
paid the old man professional visits, from which they generally returned
with more benefit than they had conferred.

Time had rolled on as usual, in spite of Wardelow's great sorrow. The
Mexican war was just breaking out when New Boston was settled, and
Wardelow's hair was black, and Mount Pisgah was a little cluster of log
huts; but when Lincoln was elected, Wardelow had been gray and called
old for nearly ten years, and Mount Pisgah had quite a number of
two-story residences and brick stores, and was a county town, with
court-house and jail all complete.

None of the railway lines projected toward and through Mount Pisgah had
been completed, however, nor had the town telegraphic communication with
anywhere; so, compared with localities enjoying the higher benefits of
civilization, Mount Pisgah and its surroundings constituted quite a
paradise for horse-thieves.

There were still sparsely settled places, too, which needed the
ministrations of the Methodist circuit-rider.

The young man who had been sent by the Southern Illinois Conference to
preach the Word on the Mount Pisgah circuit was great-hearted and
impetuous, and tremendously in earnest in all that he did or said; but,
like all such men, he paid the penalty of being in advance of his day
and generation by suffering some terrible fits of depression over the
small results of his labor.

And so, following the example of most of his predecessors on the Mount
Pisgah